MODS that can rock the disk scene

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A new optical disk being developed by an international team
including scientists at Imperial College London in Britain has so
much storage capacity that every episode of The Simpsons fits on
just one disk.

At the Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference 2004 in Taiwan, Dr
Peter Torok, lecturer in photonics in the college's physics
department, described the new method for potentially encoding and
storing up to one terabyte (1000 gigabytes) of data, or 472 hours
of film, on one 51/4-inch optical disk the size of a CD or DVD.

All 350 episodes of The Simpsons, 8080 minutes of film, could be
easily stored on the new disk, called MODS (multiplexed optical
data storage). The 1TB disk would be double-sided and dual-layered
but even a single-sided, single-layer MODS disk could hold the Lord
of The Rings trilogy 13 times over, or all 238 episodes of
Friends.

MODS disks will not be the first to challenge DVD's domination
of the audiovisual optical disk market. BluRay disks, which have
five times the capacity of a DVD at 25GB per layer, are expected to
be released towards the end of this year for the home market. MODS
disks would cost the same to make as an ordinary DVD, and CDs and
DVDs could be played on a MODS system. The disks could be on
shelves by 2010, Dr Torok said.

Melbourne group helps keep US water safe

The Melbourne-based Tenix Group is helping to thwart attempts to
poison America's water supplies. Biological agents such as
bacteria, viruses, and protozoa, which usually go unmonitored, are
the target of automated water safety sensor units to be developed
by Tenix, one of Australia's largest defence and technology
contractors.

Tenix is working with US-based CH2M Hill and Sandia National
Laboratories to develop, pilot and demonstrate an Unattended Water
Safety Analyser for use in potable water, reclaimed water, and
wastewater systems. Today's real-time, remote water-quality
monitoring is limited to detecting more traditional water-quality
parameters, such as the presence of dissolved solids, pH, nitrates
and ammonia.

Tenix, which has operations in Mississippi, Virginia and
California, will integrate the systems for CH2M Hill, a global
engineering and construction management company. Initial commercial
units and wider deployment are expected from late this year to
mid-2007. CH2M Hill advised Sydney Water during the 1998 water
contamination crisis and helped with the Sydney Olympics.

World's smartest robot, with plenty of Seoul

South Korean scientists say they have developed the world's
smartest robot able to think and learn like a human. The 1.5 metre,
67 kilogram robot, which looks like a small teenager wearing a blue
and grey spacesuit, was the first wireless network-based human-like
robot, they said.

It gets smarter through learning because, unlike other robots,
the device is linked to a remote computer through a high-speed
wireless telecom network. "This is the first network-based humanoid
in the world," said You Bum-Jae of the state-financed Korea
Institute of Science and Technology. Equipped with visual and force
sensors, the robot detects movements and speech, then sends the
data to the server for processing and receives directions allowing
it to interact with people and the environment.

Its creators say the robot's ability to move and walk lags
behind that of the ASIMO that Honda of Japan developed.